Inflow control valves have been deployed and utilized to choke and prioritize flow of hydrocarbons and other fluids in downhole well environments for some time. It is common in well installations for multiple separate inflow control valves to be deployed underground as part of a downhole well system. In some systems, inflow control valves can be arranged and deployed to particular locations in a well with the plan of establishing specific flow patterns for the well they are deployed in. Inflow control valves can be mechanically configured to limit flow for hydrocarbons and other fluid passing through them at a particular location. By limiting flow, particular sections of a well may be restricted or choked, thereby providing less overall fluid to the production of a given well. This technique can be used for various reasons, for example, it may be desirous to restrict or choke flow from a particular well section that has a higher water content or water cut than another section of the same well. By planning for desired flow patterns and deploying inflow control valves into particular locations in a well, production fluid hydrocarbon and water content can be more closely controlled.
There is a present need in the well industry for advanced control, monitoring, and logging methods that can reliably and accurately control, monitor, and log data from inflow control valve systems at a particular wellsite.
Prior technology in the area of controlling inflow control valves often relies on direct-wire connections, such as with umbilicals and conduits, to each of the individual inflow control valves that has been deployed as part of a well control system. It would further be desirable to have a system that was designed towards utilizing wireless technology to control downhole inflow control valves. Prior inflow control valve systems have also been known to rely on pulse telemetry for communicating control messages and alternatively, prior inflow control valve systems have also been known to take changes into account regarding reservoir fluid characteristics to then control the inflow control valves that are configured in the system.
The current use of a physical conduit along with an umbilical electrical connection, and the number of such conduits and umbilicals that can be stuffed through typical flow through packers limits the number of inflow control valves that can be deployed in a given well environment.
A new inflow control valve technology and framework is thus desired that will allow for numerous inflow control valves to be deployed in a particular well environment such that each control valve can be controlled, which would allow for an incredible control granularity for a particular well and for precise flow control between compartmentalized well sections.
It would also be desirable for power delivery to downhole inflow control valves that are deployed as part of a system be through a self-powered smart sub assembly that can be configured and deployed as part of the downhole valves systems deployed at a particular wellsite.